


Five secrets Lorne and Zelenka share

by smilebackwards



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-02
Updated: 2009-04-02
Packaged: 2017-11-04 02:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilebackwards/pseuds/smilebackwards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They are good at keeping secrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five secrets Lorne and Zelenka share

**Author's Note:**

> Written for prompt [67.05](http://community.livejournal.com/sg1_five_things/164761.html) at [](http://sg1-five-things.livejournal.com/profile)[**sg1_five_things**](http://sg1-five-things.livejournal.com/)

i.

In one of the sub-basements at the end of the West Pier, there is a damaged Ancient virtual reality machine stuck in an experimental puddlejumper flight simulation program.

This knowledge is guarded with the strictest possible care. If they ever have to refer to the machine, it is coded as the ‘annual performance review.’

Lorne had originally wanted to name it the Doomsday Device, but Zelenka pointed out that it would be like dangling a blue Jell-O cup in front of McKay. ‘Annual performance review’ on the other hand, just makes McKay give a lengthy diatribe about how he is the only useful person on the base, and Sheppard has a practically Pavlovian response to sprint in the opposite direction.

If Sheppard ever found out the truth, they’d never see him again and Lorne would have to take charge of the Marines.

If McKay ever found out, he’d follow Sheppard’s example and leave Zelenka with all the current projects after stealing each and every one of the competent lab assistants.

 

ii.

Sheppard and McKay have held Atlantis together since the very beginning, have become tied up tightly in the mythos of the place, in all the stories told to new recruits and endlessly recounted by old hands. They are more than just leaders; they are the promise of technological miracles and that no one will ever be left behind.

Lorne and Zelenka are second-in-command, but they both know they could never replace Sheppard and McKay.

They hope they never have to.

 

iii.

The Daedalus ships only 1,500 pudding cups every time it makes a run between Earth and Atlantis.

Lorne knows this because he does inventory. Zelenka knows this because Lorne needed someone who would rig a covert refrigeration unit that fit 100 pudding cups and wouldn’t ask any questions besides, ‘I get cut, yes?’

Zelenka fences the pudding on the Atlantis black market, and they are always able to barter for anything they need.

 

iv.

They still play the Ancient’s Civilization game sometimes.

The people of Lorenka really needed an irrigation system for the field they planted the tubers in.

 

v.

Teyla is pregnant.

Lorne can see it in the way she walks, slower, as if she doesn’t want to jar the child sleeping inside her. He can see it in the way her eyes are full of something almost fearful when she looks at Sheppard and how she opens her mouth only to close it again a second later, silently.

Zelenka can see it in the glow on her face (so like his sister when she was carrying her horrible, destructive son. Teyla’s child will be much better behaved, he’s sure) and the way her hand sometimes flutters quickly through the air over her stomach, looking for a phantom bulge.

Her team doesn’t see yet, and Lorne and Zelenka don’t say. They are good at keeping secrets, especially ones that are not theirs to tell.

 


End file.
